US military drops “Mother of All Bombs” over ISIS in Afghanistan

The United States military has dropped a massive GBU-43, a non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan.

It is a Massive Ordnance Air Blast Bomb with nickname MOAB. According to resources, it was dropped at 7 p.m. local time on Thursday. The bomb was dropped by an MC-130 aircraft, operated by Air Force Special Operations Command.

A MOAB is a 21,600-pound (9,797 kg), a GPS-guided munition that is America’s latest and most powerful non-nuclear bomb. It is for the first time that the United States has used largest non-nuclear bomb ever deployed in a combat operation. Previously, it was first tested in March 2003, just days before the start of the Iraq war.

Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, signed off on the use of the bomb, according to the sources. This step could be considered as the first step of the Trump policy to clean swipe ISIS, as promised during the election campaign.

It has been revealed that the target was an ISIS tunnel and series of the cave with a complex underground system of tunnels used by militants. In addition, the personnel who are IS fighters in the Achin district of the Nangarhar province were also under their target.

The targeted location is quite close to Pak-Afghan border. It is to remember that Pak-Afghan border is known as the second most dangerous border of the world after the border between North and South Korea, known as 38 parallel.

General John Nicholson, the head of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, said: “the bomb was used against caves and bunkers housing fighters of the Islamic State in Afghanistan, also known as ISIS-K.”

“This is the right munition to reduce these obstacles and maintain the momentum of our offensive against ISIS-K,” Nicholson said in a statement.

While clearing the notions regarding the loss of other lives, White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer said that all necessary measures were taken to avoid civilian casualties. “The military is doing an assessment to find damage and figure out casualties which are not immediately clear,” said Press Secretary.